Hello, this is attorney Kim Kwang-sik of Cheongchul Law Firm.

In divorce consultations, I often hear things like "I know my husband trades crypto, but I have no idea how much he has," or "as soon as divorce came up, his exchange account was emptied." Real estate and bank deposits can be confirmed relatively easily through the registry or financial institution records, but virtual assets have no public ledger administered by the state, and once they are moved to a personal wallet outside an exchange, not even the holder's name is revealed. That is why they are regarded as the easiest assets to hide in the property division process.

However, virtual assets are not impossible to trace. If coins were bought with Korean won on a domestic exchange, the money necessarily passed through a real-name bank account, and the exchange keeps records of deposits and withdrawals and the wallet addresses to which assets were withdrawn. In practice, family courts reflect coin balances and sale proceeds in property division on the basis of orders to submit financial transaction information and exchanges' responses to fact inquiries. In addition, with the Supreme Court having given advance notice in July 2026 of a proposed amendment to the Civil Execution Rules (민사집행규칙) setting out procedures for the attachment and liquidation of virtual assets and for provisional attachment and provisional disposition, the means of freezing coins and enforcing against them are becoming clearer.

Today I will go through whether virtual assets are subject to property division, at what point in time coins with sharply fluctuating prices are valued, by what procedures coins hidden by a spouse are found, and how they can be frozen so that they cannot be siphoned off during divorce proceedings.

[Question]

My husband bought Bitcoin with part of his salary throughout our marriage, but when divorce came up he said he had "sold it all at a loss" and has nothing left. Can I receive a share of coins held in my husband's name through property division? And how do I find hidden coins?

[Answer]

1. Are Virtual Assets Subject to Property Division?

In a 2018 case on the confiscation of criminal proceeds, the Supreme Court regarded Bitcoin as 'intangible property with property value' (Supreme Court Decision 2018Do3619, May 30, 2018). Although that was a criminal case, it is significant in that it confirmed the property nature of virtual assets, and family courts also include virtual assets in the property subject to division and value them at their Korean won value around the date of the close of pleadings (Daejeon Family Court Decision 2020Deuhap5344, July 14, 2022; Busan Family Court Decision 2024Reu20410, August 21, 2024). The Daejeon Family Court included virtual currency held in an electronic wallet in the property to be divided, finding that it has asset value as long as it is traded for Korean won.

Whose name the asset is in does not matter. Even coins held in an exchange account or personal wallet solely in one spouse's name are subject to division as property jointly formed by the couple if they were bought with income earned during the marriage. Conversely, coins held since before the marriage are in principle separate property, but they may become subject to division if the other spouse actively cooperated in maintaining them and thereby prevented their decrease, or cooperated in their increase (Supreme Court Decision 97Meu1486, February 13, 1998). Examples include cases where additional coins were bought with joint funds during the marriage, or where the investment was made possible because living expenses were covered by the other spouse's income.

▶ Card News Summary Virtual assets are also subject to property division. Even if held in a spouse's name, they can be divided if bought with income earned during the marriage, and coins held before the marriage may also be included if the other spouse cooperated in maintaining or increasing them.

2. Coins With Volatile Prices: As of When Are They Valued?

In a judicial divorce, the property subject to division and its value are in principle determined as of the date of the close of pleadings in the fact-finding court of the divorce action (Supreme Court Decision 2013Meu1455, November 28, 2013). Therefore, for coins held at the time the marriage broke down, a rise or fall in price during the litigation is in principle reflected at the market price on the date of the close of pleadings. However, if a change in property occurring between the breakdown and the close of pleadings is unrelated to the property jointly formed during the marriage, it is excluded from the property subject to division. For example, coins newly bought with one's own money after separation may be excluded, and in fact the Busan Family Court excluded additional purchases made after the breakdown from the property subject to division.

The problem arises where the other spouse has already sold the coins. The Supreme Court held that where, after the breakdown of the marriage, one spouse disposed of property unrelated to the couple's shared life or the formation and maintenance of joint property, that property may be regarded as still held on the date of the close of pleadings and included in the property subject to division (Supreme Court Decision 2024Meu13669, October 16, 2025). Accordingly, if a spouse who sold coins after the breakdown fails to prove that the proceeds were used for the shared life, such as living expenses or repayment of joint debts, the court may regard the coins as still held and include them in the property subject to division. Conversely, if they were sold at a fair price and the proceeds used to repay joint debts, the sale proceeds may be excluded from the property subject to division.

▶ Card News Summary Coins are in principle valued at the market price around the date of the close of pleadings, but coins newly bought after the breakdown may be excluded. Coins sold after the breakdown may be regarded as still held unless it is proved that the proceeds were used for the shared life.

3. How to Find Hidden Coins — From Bank Account to Exchange, From Exchange to Wallet

Tracing proceeds in stages. First, apply for property disclosure under Article 48-2 of the Family Litigation Act (가사소송법) so that the other party must personally submit a list of property, including virtual assets. A person who fails to submit the list without justifiable grounds or submits a false list is subject to an administrative fine of up to KRW 10 million. If property disclosure alone is insufficient, an application may be made under Article 48-3 of the same Act for a property inquiry, in which the court inquires of public institutions, financial institutions and others about property held in the other party's name. Together with this, by obtaining an order to submit financial transaction information for the other party's bank accounts and checking the Korean won deposits and withdrawals, it is possible to identify which exchange the money flowed to.

Once the exchange is identified, whether the person holds an account, the quantities held, the deposit and withdrawal history and the wallet addresses to which assets were withdrawn are confirmed through a fact inquiry or a document production order. In the Busan Family Court case as well, coin balances, sale proceeds and investment loans were recognized on the basis of the financial transaction information and exchange responses obtained in this way. If coins were moved to another exchange, the so-called 'Travel Rule' records provide a lead. This is because, under the Enforcement Decree of the Act on Reporting and Using Specified Financial Transaction Information (특정금융정보법 시행령), when a virtual asset service provider transfers KRW 1 million or more to another virtual asset service provider, it must provide and retain information on the sender and recipient. However, this information may not remain where coins were moved to a personal wallet, so the path of movement on the blockchain must be traced starting from the wallet address left in the withdrawal records.

▶ Card News Summary Hidden coins are found in this order: property disclosure → property inquiry → order to submit financial transaction information for bank accounts → fact inquiry or document production order to the exchange → tracing through Travel Rule records and withdrawal wallet addresses.

4. Freezing Before They Are Siphoned Off — Provisional Attachment, Provisional Disposition and Revocation of Fraudulent Acts

Coins can be moved to an overseas exchange or a personal wallet in a matter of minutes, so preventing disposal is as important as tracing. To protect the claim for property division, an application may be made to the family court for a preservative measure such as provisional attachment or provisional disposition (Article 63 of the Family Litigation Act) or for a pre-disposition seeking a prohibition on disposal and the like (Article 62). The proposed amendment to the Civil Execution Rules, of which the Supreme Court gave advance notice in July 2026, makes not only virtual assets held on exchanges but also virtual assets kept in personal wallets subject to compulsory execution, and provides a basis for provisional attachment and provisional disposition and a duty of exchanges to make statements, so the effectiveness of preservation and enforcement against coins is expected to increase.

If coins have already been transferred to a third party, a claim may be filed with the family court under Article 839-3 of the Civil Act (민법) for revocation of, and restitution from, an act of disposal made with knowledge that it would prejudice the exercise of the claim for property division. This claim must be filed within one year from the date the ground for revocation became known and within five years from the date of the act of disposal. If hidden coins are discovered belatedly after the divorce, an additional claim for division may be made only for property that was not examined at all in the property division proceedings, but this too must be done within two years from the date of divorce (Supreme Court Order 2018Seu18, June 22, 2018). However, if a claim for property division was filed within the two years, the time limit is regarded as having been met even if property such as coins is specified later through a fact inquiry or an order to submit financial transaction information (Supreme Court Decision 2023Meu11819, December 21, 2023).

▶ Card News Summary Freeze the coins by provisional attachment or provisional disposition early in the litigation. If they have already been siphoned off, seek revocation of the fraudulent act (within one year of learning of it); if they are discovered after the divorce, an additional claim for property division must be filed within two years from the date of divorce.

5. What to Check Before a Divorce

First, if the other party claims to have "lost everything on coins," the actual gains and losses must be confirmed through the transaction history. The Civil Act requires 'other circumstances' to be taken into account in property division, so if the other party reduced the property through excessive speculation with joint property without consent, you can argue that this should be reflected in the division ratio. Also, loans or losses arising from coin investments made in secret were not used for the shared life and so may not be recognized as debts subject to division. Conversely, if you are the one who personally managed the coin investments and greatly increased the property, you should prepare materials showing your contribution.

Second, care is also needed in how evidence is gathered. Secretly accessing a spouse's mobile phone or exchange account to extract materials can give rise to criminal issues such as a violation of the Act on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection (정보통신망법) or infringement of the secrecy of electronic records. It is safer to organize leads obtained legitimately, such as exchange names learned during the marriage, deposit records and screenshots of screens viewed together, and to obtain the rest through court procedures. Third, keep a record of the holdings around the time separation or divorce discussions begin. For assets that are easy to hide, courts examine the circumstances of disposal on the basis of the property that existed at the time of the breakdown, so this record becomes the reference point for later disputes.

▶ Card News Summary Verify a claim of having 'lost everything on coins' against the transaction history. Unauthorized access to a spouse's account can become a criminal matter, so it is safer to organize the leads only and obtain the rest through court procedures.

Virtual assets are easy to hide, but traces of Korean won transfers, exchange records and the blockchain ledger leave more leads than one might expect. What matters is how quickly tracing and preservation procedures are started before the other party siphons the assets off. As civil execution procedures for virtual assets are being put in place, coins need to be treated as a core item in the list of property from the early stage of divorce proceedings.

Cheongchul Law Firm provides legal advice on divorce and property division, from claims for property division on divorce, to property disclosure, property inquiries, fact inquiries and orders to submit financial transaction information for tracing hidden assets such as virtual assets and shares, to preservative measures such as provisional attachment and provisional disposition, and to revocation of fraudulent acts and additional claims for property division. If you need a consultation, please feel free to contact us at any time.